How can you sign $10,000 of new work just by joining the WCRA? I just signed up with them this year, and am just curious because I am new to the business and trying to figure things out.
When the WCRA was first started, they had given a $10,000 ânew businessâ guarantee. That is, if you didnât gain $10,000 in work in your first year of membership, they would refund the membership fee. It was quickly realized that such a guarantee really wasnât realistic, because it will be up to each member to determine how much they take advantage of their membership.
So to answer your question on how to gain $10k in business: you gotta put the work in. The marketing benefits that came with your membership will certainly help you get there faster.
Itâs been almost two months since I registered my business with the state. I have been trying to do a lot of research and get things in order. This has all been a learning process for me, and kind of slow going.
Thank you for taking the time to respond and explain that.
I would like to take advantage of the marketing benefits, and I did just download photoshop, but I have no idea how to use it⌠was trying to mess with it last night some. Have you tried any of there marketing pieces, and did any particular one work good for you?
It takes a while to get going, especially if you are new to window cleaning as a practitioner. On your downtime read/watch all the freebies that WCRA has to offer & use the marketing pieces to promote your service. When you are busy - you wonât have that luxury. Pricing is most important at this stage as you could under value your work in the beginning if you are not competent/fast enough. Go through this forum & make notes. Systems in place at the beginning are something we all wish we did. Make it fun!
Youâre welcome :). There are tons of tutorials on youtube on how to do pretty much anything in photoshop, but it definitely takes time to learn. TBH, I have not directly used any if the marketing pieces yet. I have ripped off a couple of the designs by ârecreatingâ them so to speak in GIMP. Iâm much more familiar with that program, but it unfortunately doesnât support CMYK files (thatâs a whole other story). The two designs I ripped off were the âearly birdâ and the âpost it notesâ, both built as 8.5x11 flyers. I distributed those by hand house to house when I had some down time, and I was happy with the results. I think I got a better return on the bird flyer, but there are so many variables to consider, and I was working with a very limited sample set.
I think that flyering door to door in nocer neighborhoods is really the way to go when youâre first starting out. Very inexpensive, and you can control how much interest you generate. Then as you fill up your schedule and have a budget to work with, look into doing some Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) to keep things going. You really want to make sure you have some money to play with, though, as you shouldnât expect a return on your first mailing. EDDM is about consistently getting in front of your target market, and building familiarity (imho).
it seems like everyone getâs something a little different from WCRA that helps them grow.
i joined about one year ago. my business grew by 20% last year- my most significant growth in over a decade (and it was well over $10k). i attribute that largely to being active with the WCRA. for me, it has been motivational.
being around other guys in the business who are killing it, and having a healthy sense of competition with them.
realizing that there are very solid, proven strategies that will help you grow and having access to all that knowledge
always being able to ask for advice and knowing youâll get answers from those who have already been there, done that.
these are a few of the things that helped me more than i could have ever expected.
and right now my biz is about ready to EXPLODE. i can feel it. so yeah, the WCRA will absolutely make your business better and more profitable by several orders of magnitude.
I agree, 95% of my customer base is well to do and retired, to a point the economy doesnât effect them too much, they donât have to worry bout losing jobs and downsizing, they made theyâre fortune and sitting on a hefty nest egg
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Thank you Karl for the encouragement and advice. I have been having a tough time with pricing, I donât want to be too cheap nor do I want to be too expensive.
Thanks Alex for the info and advice. When you say âflyering door to doorâ were you actually knocking on the doors and talking to the people or just leaving them in front of the door? I havenât tried talking to people door to door yet. Two days ago I made my own flyer and got 100 copies and went to a 55 or older Residential area and pasted out almost all of them. Got a call yesterday and did the estimate, and booked it today! It feels great to see something come out of the flyers. I printed another 400 yesterday, and have 200 door hangers coming tomorrow, have some good spots in mind that I want to try.
Thanks for sharing some of what the WCRA has done for you. I agree, I can see that the WCRA membership is worth it. I have already saved more then enough money through my membership to pay for it. I have also noticed there are many knowledgeable members here at the WCRA who are kind enough to share their knowledge and answer questions, which I definitely appreciate.
